Well dang a lot of stuff has happened, and a lot of stuff is about to happen. This was probably the most demanding chapter of the comic so far, artistically, and required a ton of work. Strangely, though, it never felt laborious, I actually had a lot of fun putting it together. I hope you folks like it. I’m not sure why I decided to set a huge chunk of my epic seafaring adventure several miles underground, but hey that particular story is over now, and it feels good to be back on the Elgin Marble. Weirdly, this chapter is actually much darker (as in lighting, not tone) than chapter 11, even though that one was set in an underground cavern and this one is set on the deck of the ship. I wanted to continue experimenting with extreme lighting, and I’m not completely sure yet whether the experiment worked or whether it made everything invisibly underlit. I’d love to hear what you guys thought. Also- is this chapter too big for you folks’ monitors? I tried experimenting (again), by saving the pages this time around at 144 DPI, double the resolution I’ve been using up to this point. So if the images are too physically huge, or the chapter takes two weeks to fully load or whatever, it would be very helpful to hear from you guys. I’m clearly still figuring out the most basic elements of webcomic publishing after two years.

Anyway, there are a lot of changes coming up soon. I’m off to New York for a few days right now, but when I get back things are going to happen. Of particular interest to the general public, I’m going to be giving the site a visual rehaul, and I’ll also be changing up the presentation of the comic itself. I’ve decided to discontinue the whole PDF presentation in favour of one-page-at-a-time viewing favoured by every other webcomic in existence (it turns out there is a reason they do it that way). I just decided that having to individually load up every chapter of the comic would be too time consuming to do one chapter after the other, if you wanted to read them in bulk, and too daunting for first time visitors. I’m still going to publish the comic in chapters, though, instead of page by page. So, all told, not a huge change, but still.

Also aw dang aw geez Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the best thing created by humans since indoor plumbing. If you are reading this right now but could be watching that movie instead, drop everything and go see it. It is like a religious experience.

Anyway, enjoy chapter 12 of The Fantastical Adventures of Caspian the Sea-Devil.